“Nanny! Nanny!”
“Yes, shall I send another letter?”
We’d been exchanging missives all day, so the words popped out of her automatically, assuming I wanted to send yet another.
But that’s not it this time!
“We need to drink a toast!”
“Pardon?”
“Nanny, hurry and bring me a bowl of orange juice!”
“Excuse me?”
My persistence had triumphed over Crown Prince Luciano’s stubbornness!
I’d bested the male lead!
I had no idea why he’d suddenly changed his mind after agonizing over it for half the day, but for now, I decided to bask in the happiness.
Nanny looked momentarily bewildered by my eccentric outburst, but she quickly stepped out and returned with a glass of orange juice.
I downed it in one gulp and boasted of my joy.
“I finally got permission! I can go tomorrow!”
“Oh my, really? Congratulations!”
“It’s a victory for my tenacity!”
“Indeed. Our young lady is quite strong-willed.”
“…Nanny, is that a compliment?”
“Of course. It’s praise.”
From the benevolent smile on her face, it seemed like she truly meant it as one.
‘But why does it feel off?’
Before my thoughts could deepen, Nanny posed a question.
“He was so adamant in refusing, yet you got permission in the end. How did you persuade him?”
“I’m not sure.”
I really wasn’t. Maybe he just got tired of my stubbornness?
‘…Isn’t that a bad thing?’
“Young lady, what does the reason matter? The important thing is that you got permission.”
“Right! Getting permission is what counts!”
Once again, my uneasy thoughts vanished at Nanny’s words.
‘Well, maybe it’s the protagonist buff or something.’
As Nanny said, the fact that I’d gotten permission was the most important part.
I decided to enjoy finally having a connection with the male lead.
* * *
“Hello, Your Highness Prince Luciano.”
This time, too, I smiled as brightly as I could.
Crown Prince Luciano’s face was coldly impassive, not exactly welcoming.
But since I’d come with permission, I was filled with confident assurance that I wouldn’t be chased away, and a smile naturally spread across my face.
As he watched me like that, Crown Prince Luciano opened his mouth.
“You are…”
“Please feel free to call me Espin, Your Highness.”
He seemed awkward with the formality, so I quickly let him know.
After gazing at me with that peculiar look again, Crown Prince Luciano asked,
“Do people ever say you’re a bit lacking in some way?”
“…”
My ‘clueless act’ must have made me seem like some dim-witted person to Crown Prince Luciano.
True to the male lead, he was cold and merciless.
I couldn’t help feeling a surge of indignation.
But I held it back.
After all, in novels, the female lead who gets loved is either aloof and composed or the sunny type.
Since I couldn’t pull off aloof and composed, I had to push forward with the sunny, shameless personality.
“No? I hear I’m quite clever a lot, actually.”
Come on, get wrapped up in my brightness!
“Then why can’t you understand what people say? You kept making me repeat myself.”
“…”
The male lead’s threshold was impossibly high. He didn’t get wrapped up easily.
How much longer are you going to play hard to get!
I suppressed the rising anger once more.
Right, to befriend the male lead, more sunshine is needed.
It’s the female lead’s kindness that melts an icy male lead like him.
Let’s try a little harder.
I steeled myself and threw my ace in the hole.
“I understood. I understood, but I pretended not to because I wanted to see you, Your Highness.”
It was a direct, if embarrassing, ‘I wanted to meet you!’ attack.
‘With something this straightforward, you must feel something too.’
I felt triumphant with that thought.
But the state of Crown Prince Luciano before me wasn’t the reaction I’d expected.
No blushing face.
No impassive expression with just his ears turning red as he averted his gaze.
No cute fidgeting with his fingers or anything like that.
Just.
“Why?”
He asked indifferently, staring straight at me.
His eyes gleamed like polished glass marbles, filled only with genuine puzzlement about the situation.
I was shocked.
Normally, when the female lead says something like this, the male lead should secretly flutter inside and show a flustered reaction, right?
If you look at me like I’m a criminal, what does that make me!
“We—we agreed to become friends!”
“So why do we have to become friends?”
It’s an iron wall. A complete iron wall!
Because you might be my man! If I said that, I’d be treated like a lunatic, so I pulled out the same words I’d said to Empress Isabel before.
“I told you last time. I’m going to be friends with everyone.”
As I passionately declared this, Crown Prince Luciano’s expression turned even colder in an instant.
He hadn’t been welcoming to begin with, but now he looked like he wanted to drive me out.
“You can’t be friends with everyone. Go to the others who’ll accept you.”
With that, Crown Prince Luciano stood up abruptly and left the reception room.
‘What? Is this the end?’
I sat there dazed for a moment before realizing he’d never intended to dine with me from the start.
I’d come starving, thinking we’d eat together, only to be dismissed after a few words.
The male lead’s walls were high and higher still.
* * *
That said, giving up wouldn’t make me the protagonist. Tenacity is a virtue of the sunny female lead, after all.
I didn’t abandon the sunshine strategy.
I shamelessly sent another letter to Crown Prince Luciano.
This time, too, I threatened that if there was no permission, I’d just show up anyway, but there was no reply.
So I just went.
“We meet again, Your Highness Prince Luciano.”
“What is it?”
Surprisingly, he didn’t turn me away at the door.
“Do people only meet when there’s business?”
“That’s something only idle people say.”
He didn’t welcome me either, though.
With that curt remark, he left the room again.
I was bewildered, wondering where he was suddenly going.
Thinking he might have urgent matters, I sat quietly and waited.
Only after sitting there for a long while did I realize he’d counted that single exchange as our ‘meeting.’
I had to return home fuming once more.
And I wrote a letter saying I’d visit again the next day.
No reply this time either, and I boldly visited Crown Prince Luciano’s palace.
“Hello! Your Highness.”
“You don’t get tired of this.”
“How could I get tired?”
“I’m tired of it.”
“…”
With nothing to say, I fell silent, and after staring at me briefly, Crown Prince Luciano left.
I waited for a bit, but he didn’t return.
Only later did I realize today’s meeting was over, and I went home.
Crown Prince Luciano’s coldness occasionally brought waves of frustration.
But as an aspiring sunny female lead, I didn’t yield.
Like the protagonist of a new story, I resolutely strengthened my will.
I visited Crown Prince Luciano tirelessly and shamelessly.
Was my sunshine strategy slowly taking effect?
Crown Prince Luciano would send me away after only a few words, but he no longer refused my visits.
“Since our faces are familiar now, couldn’t you offer me a cup of tea?”
“Do you think this is a teahouse?”
Though our conversations went like that.
Still, I believed it was a step closer.
“You again?”
“Don’t we need to meet often to become friends?”
“Meeting often could make me dislike you more.”
…Are we really getting closer?
I wanted to believe my sunshine strategy was working. And so, time steadily passed.
* * *
“Nanny, this isn’t going to work.”
“Why? It seemed like you stayed a bit longer today.”
“No. We only exchanged about four sentences total.”
“Oh dear, that’s a problem.”
I was serious, but Nanny responded as if it were no big deal.
I thought frequent meetings would let me seep into Crown Prince Luciano’s heart. But we hadn’t even had a proper conversation yet.
We just saw each other’s faces briefly, exchanged a word or two curtly, and parted— I worried if this was okay.
“How am I supposed to become friends like this?”
“You’ll become friends eventually.”
Nanny’s words were wrong.
It had already been nearly a year since I started frequenting Crown Prince Luciano’s palace.
All that time, it had been my one-sided visits, and Crown Prince Luciano’s heart hadn’t budged an inch.
Our relationship was so superficial that if he told me not to come anymore, it would be hard to visit.
After all that effort, I still hadn’t even gotten a single cup of tea— is that normal?
At this rate, the original female lead will appear before I become friends!
My sunshine strategy wasn’t working at all!
I was tired of lying to my parents that I was getting along well with Crown Prince Luciano so they wouldn’t worry.
“This won’t do. Isn’t there a way to become friends with a friend?”
“You’re asking me now how to become friends with a friend? Me, who’s old and hasn’t made a new friend in years?”
It’s true that at Nanny’s age, making new friends is rare.
But.
“Then what do I do? I don’t have any friends either.”
In trying to win over Crown Prince Luciano, I hadn’t had time to make other friends.
Before I possessed her, Espin had some acquaintances she got along with moderately.
But once rumors spread that I was coming and going from Crown Prince Luciano’s palace, contact ceased.
And since I was visiting him every day, I hadn’t thought to maintain ties with others, so I’d ended up isolated.
I wasn’t the type to cling to having friends, but not becoming friends with Crown Prince Luciano would feel incredibly unfair in this situation.
Seeing my downcast face, Nanny sighed and suggested,
“How about preparing a gift to take?”
“A gift?”
“You’ve visited the prince’s palace so many times, but always empty-handed, right?”
Come to think of it, I’d never brought a gift once.
It’s not mandatory to bring something when visiting someone’s home, but after going that often, I should have taken something at least once.
I gladly accepted Nanny’s advice.
“What would be good as a gift?”
“Well, something the prince likes… But you wouldn’t know that, would you?”
From Nanny, who knew our situation, came words that faced the reality head-on.
How would I know without having a proper conversation? I was about to grumble when it suddenly hit me.
“Nanny, I know what to prepare.”
“Really?”
At my confident tone, Nanny looked worried instead.
But I wasn’t anxious at all.
“Yes, I’m sure Crown Prince Luciano will like my gift!”
This was the privilege of a possessor!
I didn’t know what Crown Prince Luciano liked now, but I knew what he would come to like in the future.
